Alexander Kuprin was born into the family of a district school teacher in Borisoglebsk Town of the Voronezh Province on March 10 (22), 1880. From 1893 the family lived in Voronezh. As a youngster Alexander Kuprin worked as a railroad clerk but showed deep interest in art. He decided to become an artist and moved to St. Petersburg in 1902.

The future artist studied at L. E. Dmitriyev-Kavkazsky school till 1904. Then he moved to Moscow to attend K. F. Yuon's school. After two years of training there Alexander Kuprin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied under Abraham Arkhipov, Konstantin Korovin, and Leonid Pasternak from 1906 to 1910.

In 1909 Alexander Kuprin for the first time participated in the Golden Fleece art salon. The artist and a group of adherents founded the Bubnovy Valet (Jack of Diamonds) association in 1910.

In 1913 — 1914 he traveled in Italy and France.
In 1920 the artist moved to Nizhny Novgorod, where he headed art studios.

From 1910 to 1924 Alexander Kuprin was mostly into still lifes with a very vivid touch of Cubism.

In 1924 he returned to Moscow and from then on took up landscaping.
He became a member of the Moscow Painters art group in 1925.
From 1926 to 1930 he annually travelled to Bakhchisarai. From the 1930s he was busy with mastering industrial landscape.
 

Alexander Kuprin died in Moscow on March 18, 1960. He was laid down to rest at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.